Yesterday was a good day. We got lots done and pretty much according to plan for once. Stephen, Nick, Ash and myself headed off to the west side of Flanders to do a number of jobs. Firstly I managed to catch up with one of our neighbouring farmers for a chat. You can do a lot of more work chatting over a fence than chatting over the phone. Stephen, Ash and I then headed off to
Ballangrew wood to remove an old sign post and put in a new one. Why 3 of us ? Well the sign designers have over the years been designing bigger and bigger signs and it takes 3 of us to lift the current version into its hole. The next version will probably need a helicopter for installation. We also managed to cut back the rhododendron that was narrowing down an access track and pick up some timbers from a replaced bridge so that we can reuse them . All this and we didn't get our tracked wheelbarrow (called an iron horse) stuck despite being nearly knee deep in mud at times. Meanwhile Nick was using his finely honed Ray
Mears fire lighting skills to get a damp fire going in
Ballangrew meadow that was to burn up some cut gorse. We joined him at lunchtime and set to to burn a huge pile of gorse that had been cut before Christmas on a volunteer work party. Stephen and Ash then went to patch up a crack in ditch dam while Nick and I finished off the burning up. I then met up with a fencing contractor to look at a job nearby. So by half past four we had completed all the tasks that we had set out to do and were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. By then the fire had died down a bit and Stephen was able to weave his magic. Stephen is to bonfire baked
potatoes what
Michelangelo is to sculpture, but it is not just the
potatoes, he always surprises us with fillings. Last time it was olives, this time it was
gherkins. Fantastic. Sitting around the fire, aching after a long day it tasted fantastic even in the steady drizzle that had started. Goodness knows what he will do next time.
Yesterday was a good day. We got lots done and pretty much according to plan for once. Stephen, Nick, Ash and myself headed off to the west side of Flanders to do a number of jobs. Firstly I managed to catch up with one of our neighbouring farmers for a chat. You can do a lot of more work chatting over a fence than chatting over the phone. Stephen, Ash and I then headed off to Ballangrew wood to remove an old sign post and put in a new one. Why 3 of us ? Well the sign designers have over the years been designing bigger and bigger signs and it takes 3 of us to lift the current version into its hole. The next version will probably need a helicopter for installation. We also managed to cut back the rhododendron that was narrowing down an access track and pick up some timbers from a replaced bridge so that we can reuse them . All this and we didn't get our tracked wheelbarrow (called an iron horse) stuck despite being nearly knee deep in mud at times. Meanwhile Nick was using his finely honed Ray Mears fire lighting skills to get a damp fire going in Ballangrew meadow that was to burn up some cut gorse. We joined him at lunchtime and set to to burn a huge pile of gorse that had been cut before Christmas on a volunteer work party. Stephen and Ash then went to patch up a crack in ditch dam while Nick and I finished off the burning up. I then met up with a fencing contractor to look at a job nearby. So by half past four we had completed all the tasks that we had set out to do and were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. By then the fire had died down a bit and Stephen was able to weave his magic. Stephen is to bonfire baked potatoes what Michelangelo is to sculpture, but it is not just the potatoes, he always surprises us with fillings. Last time it was olives, this time it was gherkins. Fantastic. Sitting around the fire, aching after a long day it tasted fantastic even in the steady drizzle that had started. Goodness knows what he will do next time.
